Method, system and facility for controlling resource allocation within a manufacturing environment

ABSTRACT

A method, a system and a facility provide for the control of resource allocation within a build to order manufacturing environment. A system for providing a control center for a manufacturing facility is disclosed. The system includes a plurality of information sources operably associated with manufacturing products within the manufacturing facility. A user interface of the system displays selective information associated with portions of the manufacturing facility within a control center operable to manage production within the manufacturing facility. The system further includes a resource allocator operably coupled to the control center and the plurality of information sources and the resource allocator is operable to monitor work in process within the manufacturing facility.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure generally relates to manufacturing and, moreparticular to a method, system and facility for controlling resourceallocation within a manufacturing environment.

BACKGROUND OF THE DISCLOSURE

Many years ago, manufacturers learned that, when building sufficientlylarge quantities of identical products, assembly lines could be used toincrease the rate of production and decrease the per-unit productioncosts. In an assembly line, the assembly process is divided in a seriesof processing steps through which the work-in-process moves to result inthe end product. These steps may be optimized, and once themanufacturing system becomes operational it will build a number ofproducts with the same configuration using the optimized steps.

Assembly lines are typically used in a build-to-stock production model,where large quantities of identical products are manufactured inanticipation of forecasted demand. The manufactured products are thenwarehoused until that demand is realized. Build-to-stock manufacturingsystems are therefore primarily suited to markets in which manufacturerscan accurately predict customer demand.

In many markets, however, predicting customer demand is risky, at best.For example, in the market for computer systems and related items,technological improvements are realized so frequently and componentprices change so rapidly that it is difficult to accurately predict howlarge the market for any particular product will ultimately be. As aresult, when manufacturers in industries like information technologyutilize the build-to-stock model, those manufacturers frequently findthemselves with stocks of manufactured goods that are difficult orimpossible to market at a profit (i.e., with stale inventory).

A contrasting model of production that helps manufacturers avoid thestale-inventory problem is the build-to-order model. According to thebuild-to-order model, each product is assembled only after a customerhas ordered that particular product. One of the disadvantagestraditionally associated with the build-to-order model, however, is thatmore time is required to fill orders, in that products must bemanufactured, not simply taken from stock. Another disadvantage is thatbuild-to-order manufacturing systems are typically less efficient thanbuild-to-stock manufacturing systems, which drives up the cost ofproducts that are built to order. Accordingly, build-to-order systemshave typically been utilized in markets for luxury items, such astailored clothing, and markets in which a paucity of manufacturersleaves consumers with little choice but to bear the high prices anddelays that are generally passed down by build-to-order manufacturers.

Some manufacturers have attempted to minimize the delays associated withthe build-to-order model by maintaining a significant inventory of thematerials required for production (e.g., the components that areassembled to create the finished goods). Simply carrying such aninventory, however, imposes costs on manufacturers, including the costsassociated with warehousing the material. Furthermore, in markets whereproduct innovations occur rapidly, such material oftentimes becomestale.

For example, in contemporary times, the market for computer systems(including, without limitation, mini-computers, mainframe computers,personal computers, servers, work stations, portables, hand heldsystems, and other data processing systems) has been marked by high andincreasing rates of product innovation. Further, to manufacture, forexample, a typical personal computer, many different components arerequired, including a processor, memory, additional data storage (suchas a hard disk drive), a number of peripheral devices that provide inputand output (I/O) for the system, and adapter cards (such as video orsound cards) for communicating with the peripheral devices. Each ofthose components is also typically available in many differentvariations. In such markets, even if using the build-to-order model,manufacturers risk significant losses when carrying significantinventories of material.

Also, it is difficult to optimize build-to-order manufacturingfacilities in terms of labor requirements and space requirements, assuch facilities must be able to produce of a wide variety of products.However, in markets where many manufacturers are competing forcustomers, such as the computer system market, any reduction inproduction costs that does not decrease product quality is an importantimprovement.

Among the cost-saving measures that a producer may employ is to followthe direct-ship model, in which the manufacturer avoids middlemen suchas distributors and retailers by accepting orders directly from andshipping products directly to customers. However, additional costs areborne by a manufacturer that provides a direct-ship option, in that themanufacturer must provide distribution facilities, in addition toproviding the manufacturing facilities.

SUMMARY OF THE DISCLOSURE

In accordance with teachings of the present disclosure, a method, systemand facility are described for controlling resource allocation within amanufacturing environment. According to one aspect, a manufacturingfacility employing dynamic allocation of resources for assembling andshipping computer based systems is disclosed. The facility includes acentralized information system communicatively coupled with selectiveportions of the manufacturing facility and operable to aggregateinformation associated with manufacturing computer systems. The facilityfurther includes a work in process (WIP) profile associated with theselective portions of the facility and operable to provide informationin substantially real-time to the centralized information system. Thefacility further includes at least one user interface displayed within acontrol center of the manufacturing facility and operable to enableallocation of resources within the selective portions of themanufacturing facility.

According to another aspect of the present disclosure, a system forproviding a control center for a manufacturing facility is disclosed.The system includes a plurality of information sources operablyassociated with manufacturing products within the manufacturingfacility. A user interface of the system displays selective informationassociated with portions of the manufacturing facility within a controlcenter operable to manage production within the manufacturing facility.The system further includes a resource allocator operably coupled to thecontrol center and the plurality of information sources and the resourceallocator is operable to monitor work in process within themanufacturing facility.

According to a further aspect of the present disclosure, a method forcontrolling allocation of resources within a manufacturing facility isdisclosed. The method includes determining a WIP profile associated withone or more areas within the manufacturing facility and accessing one ormore databases to provide an aggregated information source to bedisplayed within a user interface of a control center. The methodfurther includes determining available capacity based on shipping andscheduling information for the manufacturing facility and identifying anorder release criteria limiting shipment of an order, the limitingassociated with the WIP profile.

The present disclosure relates to a manufacturing facility that providesbuild-to-order products and direct shipment of products to customers.More specifically, the present disclosure relates to a manufacturingfacility that is constructed and operated in such a manner as to enjoynumerous benefits, relative to prior art manufacturing facilities,including the benefit of reduced production costs. In addition, thepresent disclosure relates to systems and methods that may be utilizedto advantage in a distribution facility, independent of themanufacturing process.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

A more complete understanding of the present embodiments and advantagesthereof may be acquired by referring to the following description takenin conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like referencenumbers indicate like features, and wherein:

FIG. 1 illustrates a manufacturing facility in accordance with teachingsof the present disclosure;

FIG. 2 illustrates a detailed layout of a manufacturing facility inaccordance with teachings of the present disclosure;

FIG. 3 illustrates a centralized information system for use with amanufacturing facility in accordance with teachings of the presentdisclosure;

FIG. 4 illustrates a flow diagram of a method for managing resourceswithin a manufacturing facility;

FIG. 5 illustrates a flow diagram of a method for allocating resourcesusing a remote monitor and simulator in accordance with teachings of thepresent disclosure; and

FIG. 6 illustrates a flow diagram of a method for pulling productthrough a manufacturing facility based on capacity availability of acarrier and WIP profiles of the manufacturing facility in accordancewith teachings of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DISCLOSURE

Preferred embodiments and their advantages are best understood byreference to FIGS. 1 through 6, wherein like numbers are used toindicate like and corresponding parts. Referring to FIG. 1, there isdepicted an exemplary manufacturing facility 100 according to thepresent disclosure. In the illustrative embodiment, manufacturingfacility 100 is used to manufacture computers, which are shippeddirectly to customers, along with associated articles (such as monitors,speakers, printers, etc). Manufacturing facility 100 is operatedaccording to a new process and includes significant architecturalenhancements, new hardware, and new control logic that providesincreased quality and efficiency.

During production, the manufacturer receives one or more customer ordersfrom a business unit and orders components from suppliers needed tomanufacture the products for those orders and articles and packaging(such as boxes and protective inserts) needed to fill the orders.Preferably, to minimize the inventory carried in manufacturing facility100, few if any components, articles, and packaging will be left overfrom previous production runs. Therefore, at the beginning of eachproduction run, most or all of components 103, articles 112, andpackages 111 for the orders in that run will be ordered from suppliers.Production runs may nevertheless overlap to some degree, in that themanufacturer need not IL wait until the last item for one run is shippedbefore ordering components for the next production run from suppliers.

Manufacturing facility 100 receives ordered components 103, articles112, and packages 111 via assembly unit 101 in one region and a shippingunit 106 in another region (illustrated near the upper end of FIG. 1).Product components 103 are received in assembly unit 101 via docks in afirst portion of the left wall of manufacturing facility 100. Bycontrast, packages 111 for assembled products enter assembly unit 101through the lower portion of the right wall of manufacturing facility100.

Manufacturing facility 100 may also receive products (e.g., computers)that were assembled at other facilities and delivered to manufacturingfacility 100 to fill an order. Preferably, external products 113 arereceived into shipping unit 106, via docks in the second portion of leftwall of left of manufacturing facility 100 as are ordered articles 112.Preferably, however, the receiving docks (not expressly shown) forordered articles 112 are disposed between the docks for externalproducts 113 and the docks for components 103, and articles 112 aretemporarily stored in an article-staging area 107 at the lower edge ofshipping unit 106 near assembly unit 101.

Once sufficient components 103 have been received, assembly unit 101begins assembling components 103 into computers systems. Specifically,components 103 are kitted in a kitting facility 102, and the componentkits are transported to a build facility 104 for assembly andconfiguration. Once assembled and configured, each product such as acomputer system is transported to a boxing facility 105, where theproduct is packaged and a tracking label is applied to the packagedproduct. The finished products are then transported to shipping unit 106via transport 116.

As illustrated in FIG. 1, each area within manufacturing facility 100includes a Work-in-Process (“WIP”) profile for identifying the volumeand throughput of product within a specific area of manufacturingfacility 100. For example, kitting facility 102 includes an associatedkitting WIP profile 102 a; build facility 104 includes an associatedbuild facility WIP profile 104 a; boxing or packaging facility 105includes an associated boxing or packaging facility WIP profile 105 a.In a similar manner, each area within shipping unit 106 includesassociated WIP profiles. Manufacturing facility 100 further includesassociated monitoring and control hardware and software for accessing,controlling and communicating WIP profiles within each area ofmanufacturing facility 100. For example, as product or units transportedthroughout manufacturing facility 100, each unit may be scanned into andout of each area using an optical scanner and bar code to identify whenproduct enters and/or leaves an area within manufacturing facility 100.A WIP profile for each area and associated logs, databases, etc. may beautomatically updated for specific units as they progress throughmanufacturing facility 100. In this manner, a control center (notexpressly shown) may employ one or more software programs to access WIPprofiles for aggregating information related to manufacturing therebyallowing effecting management of resources within manufacturing facility100.

For example, shipping unit 106 utilizes a shipping system (i.e., theequipment in shipping unit 106 and the related software) which receiveseach finished product from the assembly unit (as well as externalproducts) and automatically determines whether the corresponding orderis fillable (i.e., whether all items in the order, including productsand associated articles, are available for shipping). The shippingsystem also automatically determines whether each fillable order isshippable (i.e., whether there is a suitable carrier vehicle or shippingcontainer present with available capacity to receive the items in theorder). These automatic determination are made with reference todatabases including WIP profiles that reflect the current state of theproduction environment. A control center may access the database ordatabases to identify which products are ready for shipment, whicharticles have been received, which carrier vehicles are present, and howmuch capacity those vehicles have available.

In the illustrative embodiment, shipping unit 106 includes a receivingscanner 117, which monitors a transport 116 that brings products fromassembly unit 101 into shipping unit 106. As each product passes byreceiving scanner 117, receiving scanner 117 reads a barcode on thatproduct's tracking label, updates one or more databases to reflect thedetected location of the scanned product, and triggers the automaticprocess for determining whether to release an order (i.e., whether totransport the items in the order to outgoing docks).

If the shipping system determines that an order is not fillable or notshippable, the shipping system automatically stores the productsreceived for that order in automated storage and retrieval system (ASRS)108. When it is determined that an order is fillable and shippable, theshipping system automatically updates the status of the order in one ormore databases to flag the order as having been released andautomatically conveys the ordered items to a parcel unit 110 fortendering to parcel carriers (for small orders) or to aless-than-trailer-load (LTL) unit 109 to be loaded onto pallets and thentendered to LTL carriers (for larger orders), as described in greaterdetail below.

As illustrated, products flow out of the LTL unit 109 through docks inan upper portion of right wall of manufacturing facility 100 andproducts flow out of parcel unit 110 through docks in the upper wall ofmanufacturing facility 100. Docks for outgoing items and docks forincoming material are thus distributed along the perimeter of themanufacturing facility according to a particular pattern that providesfor increased material input and shipping output. Carriers face lesstraffic congestion when traveling to and positioning themselves atincoming and outgoing docks. A greater number of carrier vehicles cantherefore be accommodated at one time, compared to prior art facilities.This improvement helps make it possible for the manufacturer supportincreased production levels and to provide customers with products in atimely manner while utilizing the just-in-time approach to procuringmaterial. Further, the logistical advantages are provided with requiringan increase in the amount of space required to house manufacturingfacility 100. The positioning of the docks also minimizes the amount ofmaterial movement required within manufacturing facility 100 and, inconjunction with the internal layout, provides for a work flow that isconducive to rapid production and space efficiency.

When an order is released, if products for that order are stored in ASRS108, the shipping system will preferably automatically discharge thoseproducts from ASRS 108 (i.e., direct ASRS 108 to move the products frominternal storage to distribution conveyor 116). After the order isreleased, shipping labels are also applied to the ordered products.Specifically, products from ASRS 108 and products coming directly fromthe external product docks and directly from assembly unit 101 are alltransported through labeling stations (not expressly shown) for productson the way to LTL unit 109 or parcel unit 110. Moreover, the shippinglabels for the assembled products are printed and applied in an area ofmanufacturing facility 100 that is separate from the area in whichlabels are printed for and applied to articles. For example, productshipping-label printers may be located in a central region of shippingunit 106, while the article-labeling stations may be located in articlestaging area 107 of shipping unit 106, adjacent to assembly unit 101.

Referring now to FIG. 2, a detailed illustration of a manufacturingfacility is shown. The manufacturing facility illustrated in FIG. 2 issimilar to manufacturing facility 100 of FIG. 1 and includes hardwareand software for providing a control center for controlling allocationof resources within the manufacturing facility. A manufacturingfacility, illustrated generally at 200, includes an incoming articlesarea 201 for receiving articles, components, etc. for assemblingcomputer systems. Incoming components are staged for assembly within oneof a plurality of kitting units 202, 203, 204, and 205. Operators withineach kitting unit place associated hardware within a bin (not expresslyshown) which is forwarded to a build facility 207 for assembling thecomponents into computer systems. Product is automatically transportedto one of the production lines 206 a, 206 b, 206 c, 206 d, via transport206. Build facility 207 includes build area 207 a, 207 b, 207 c, 207 dand are associated with each production line 206 a, 206 b, 206 c, 206 d.Each build area includes four associated work cells providing operatorsfacilities and equipment for assembling computer systems using thecomponents within each transported kit.

Each transport for an associated production line 206 a, 206 b, 206 c,and 206 d is a multi-tiered transport system that includes severalvertically displaced transport levels for transporting assembly kits toassociated build cells within build facility 207. Each transport isdistributively coupled to boxing facility 208 including plural boxingareas 208 a, 208 b, 208 c and 208 d for packaging assembled systems forshipping. Upon packaging the assembled products, each box ispreferreably transferred to shipping where associated items from SPAM(speaker, printer, advanced port replicators, monitors) unit 209 may bejoined via a transport system (not expressly shown). Within SPAM unit209, additional hardware such as speakers, printers, monitors, etc. areincluded with each packaged product.

Packaged products may be transported to either LTL unit 214, parcelshipping 217 or ASRS 211 depending on an order fill requirement orcriteria for the associated produced product. For example, if an orderhas been filled and is to be shipped via an available LTL carrier, thecompleted product will be forwarded to one of the pallet areas 215 a,215 b, 215 c, or 216 d for palletizing and subsequent shipping via anLTL carrier. In another embodiment, an order may be forwarded to parcelshipping area 217 for shipping orders to customers which may not requireLTL carrier type transportation of product.

ASRS 211 provides temporary storage for assembled products until ordersare filled for shipping and an order shipping criteria is met. ASRS 211distributes products among several rows of shelves vertically displacedwithin ASRS 211 using first and second ASRS transports 212, 213 and ahandler displaced within each row of ASRS 211. Each handler selectivelyplaces and removes packaged products within ASRS 211 based on shippingcriteria and/or order fulfillment criteria for each stored/retrievedpackage. Each handler stores and retrieves packages based on the orderfulfillment criteria and receives or places the packages on ASRStransports 212 and 213 accordingly. The products are then forwarded toLTL Unit 214 or parcel shipping 217 where the order is delivered to anappropriate customer.

In one embodiment, one or more products may be transferred from anotherfacility to fill an order. For example, a product may be received viaincoming parcel 210 and transferred to one of the units withinmanufacturing facility 200. Incoming parcel 210 may provide a completedproduct which may be stored within ASRS 211 until an order is completeor used to fill an order for shipping directly to a customer via LTLunit 214. As such, a package received via incoming parcel 210 may beautomatically transferred to LTL unit 214, parcel shipping 217, or ASRS211 based on an order fulfillment criteria for the completed product.

Similar to FIG. 1, each area within the manufacturing facility 200includes a work-in-process (WIP) profile for each area. For example,boxing facility 208 may include a volume of products in the process ofbeing boxed or staged to be boxed. Boxing facility includes a WIPprofile having a capacity and throughput level for each boxing area 208a, 208 b, 208 c, 208 d based on the number of products within andprocessed through each area. As such, a granular WIP profile may beacquired for each area within boxing facility 208.

In a preferred embodiment, real-time acquisition of WIP profilesadvantageously allow a control center for manufacturing facility 200with access to information relating to the dynamically changingenvironment within manufacturing facility 200. For example, one or morepieces of equipment within boxing facility 208 may malfunction duringoperation and may be inoperable for a undeterminable time period. Assuch, a WIP profile for boxing area 208 may be accessed to determine themaximum throughput of boxing facility 208, and resources within buildfacility 207 and kitting 206 may be reallocated without overburdeningboxing 208 and causing a bottleneck during production. In a similarmanner, if one or more pieces of equipment malfunction in boxing area208 a, the control center may automatically re-route product from buildfacility 202 to boxing area 208 b, 208 c and/or 208 d.

In one embodiment, WIP profiles for each area within manufacturingfacility 200 may be used to pull product through manufacturing facilitybased on the availability of a carrier or available capacity for anincoming carrier. For example, an LTL carrier may schedule shipment oforders using the WIP profiles of production areas within manufacturingfacility 200. Such product may be pulled through appropriate areas basedon the scheduled availability of the carrier thereby increasing theoverall flow of product through the manufacturing facility andsubsequently to a carrier. In this manner, portions of an order may bestored throughout manufacturing facility 200 until a carrier isavailable to transport the product to a customer, thereby increasing therelative throughput of products through manufacturing facility 200 whileminimizing inventory of products. Additionally, resources may bedynamically allocated to fill the order in real-time based on WIPprofiles within manufacturing facility 200.

FIG. 3 illustrates a centralized information system for controllingallocation of resources within a manufacturing facility. A controlcenter, illustrated generally at 300, includes an information system 301that may include even more computer systems, servers, terminals, etc.communicatively coupled to one or more of business units 302, an ordermanagement source 303, an outbound carrier(s) source 304, an inboundcarrier(s) source 305, a first manufacturing facility 306 and/or secondmanufacturing facility 318. Each manufacturing facility may includeaccess to several production areas within each facility for producingproducts such as computer systems. For example, first manufacturingfacility 306 may include a kitting area 307, a build area 308, a boxingarea 309, an LTL area 310, an ASRS area 311, an incoming parcel area312, a SPAM area 313, an outbound parcel 314, an incoming LTL carriers315, outbound LTL carriers 316, and an articles area 317.

Control center 300 advantageously provides access to each informationsource through aggregating selective information 323 and communicatingthe selective information via interface 324 to create one or moresessions for efficiently managing production within a manufacturingfacility. For example, a session A 319 may include a user interface formonitoring WIP profiles within a manufacturing facility and allocatingresources based on WIP profiles for each area. Session B 320 may be usedto access information relating to production and dock door scheduling.Session C 321 may be used for identifying and tracking equipment errorsfor equipment within each part of the facility. Additionally, Session D322 may include a user interface for identifying and recovering fromprocess errors that may occur within the manufacturing facility. Thoughillustrated as separate sessions, each session may be integrated witheach other or may be provided within separate user interfaces usingseparate monitors centrally localized to create a control center formanaging a manufacturing facility.

Through aggregating information for one or more sources, either internalor external to a manufacturing facility, dynamic allocation of resourceswithin the manufacturing facility can be managed using centralizedinformation system 301. For example, manufacturing facility 306 mayinclude a WIP profile for ASRS area 311 which includes informationrelating to products stored within ASRS 311 for filling an order managedby order management source 303. As such, order management source 303 maydetermine when an order ship criteria has been fulfilled using the WIPprofile associated with ASRS 311 and release an order upon an inboundcarrier being available. In this manner, centralized information system301 may provide a user interface for a user within a session such assession A 319 allowing a user to make decisions for allocating resourcesto ship products.

In another embodiment, one or more business units 302 may request ordersbased on a WIP profile for one or more areas within first and/or secondmanufacturing facility 306, 318. For example, incoming parcel 312 mayinclude several products shipped from second manufacturing facility 318to first manufacturing facility 306. One of the business units 302 mayrequest additional products for an order and incoming parcel 312 mayreceive one or more of the requested products. As such, centralizedinformation system 301 may aggregate information relating to the requestand provide a user of system 301 WIP profile and scheduling informationfor filling the updated order. In this manner, resources for producing,scheduling, storing, transporting, etc. for a manufacturing facility maybe dynamically allocated to fill each order based on WIP profilesassociated with portions of the manufacturing facility.

In another embodiment, information system 301 may be used to identifyprocess errors occurring within a manufacturing facility allowing a userof system 301 to re-allocate resources and expedite resolving issues forthe problematic process. For example, a burn-in process may be causingerrors for a particular product and not for another product beingmanufactured. As such, the problematic process may be identified byinformation system 301 and a user interface may be updated to identifythe problem in real-time. As such, a user of control center 300 mayre-route products and/or resources to another portion of themanufacturing facility to minimize the impact on production caused bythe burn-in process.

FIG. 4 illustrates a flow diagram of a method for managing resourceswithin a manufacturing facility. The method begins generally at step400. At step 401, the method accesses one or more databases associatewith manufacturing products and translates 402 informationrepresentative of a real-time manufacturing environment into a userinterface 403 displayable within a monitor located within a controlcenter for the manufacturing facility. One or more user interfaces maybe displayed on one or more monitors within the control center and mayinclude a production and dock door scheduling user interface, a WIPprofile and resource allocation user interface, a process error andrecovery user interface, an equipment error identification and recoveryuser interface, a simulation user interface, or other user interfaceswhich may be centrally located with a control center.

Upon displaying a user interface, the method proceeds to providereal-time updates 404 for each user interface 405 through accessing oneor more networks operable to provide real-time updates to data logs ordatabases representing changes within the manufacturing environment. Forexample, a problem may occur with one or more products for an orderwhich was produced in a particular build cell of the manufacturingfacility. However, several other products for the same order may notencounter such quality issues. As such, the satifactory products may bepackaged and forwarded to ASRS and stored while the products withproblem(s) are held until the problem is resolved. Such a situation mayprovide a challenge for resources which have been allocated for fillingan order. For example, a particular LTL carrier may have been scheduledto ship the completed order to a destination. With a portion of theorder being held, the LTL carrier may not be able to meet the deadline.The method would determine if resources should be reallocated 407 andallow a user to access one or more areas having WIP profiles for similarproduct within the manufacturing facility and reallocate resources 408within the facility so that the LTL carrier will not have to wait andthe deadline will be met. The change in resource allocation may beupdated within an appropriate database 409 and the method would updatethe user interface 404 accordingly.

In another embodiment, an LTL carrier which may be incoming to themanufacturing facility may have additional space for transportingproducts. As such, the control center may be able to access orders andresources 407 associated with products being manufactured within themanufacturing facility and pull product based on WIP to fill an orderfor the carrier thereby making efficient use of the additional spacewithin the particular carrier and resources and/or product within themanufacturing facility.

FIG. 5 illustrates a flow diagram of a method for allocating resourcesusing a remote monitor and simulator. The method begins generally atstep 500 and may be used by a product such as the system illustrated inFIG. 3 or other systems operable to employ the method of FIG. 5.Additionally, the method may be embodied within a program ofinstructions such as a computer readable medium or within other mediumssuch as encoded logic firmware, or hardware operable to employ themethod of FIG. 5.

At step 501 the method accesses one or more databases associated with amanufacturing facility and communicates the information 502 to a controlcenter operable to display a control system 503 including a remotesystem monitor of resources within a manufacturing facility. In oneembodiment, the remote monitoring system includes a graphicalillustration of each piece of equipment within the manufacturingfacility and an associated status log for the equipment. For example,the user interface may display if a piece of equipment is fullyfunctional or if the equipment is inoperable. Other embodiments mayinclude determining the throughput for a piece of equipment and/ordetermining an item being processed by a piece of equipment. Forexample, one or more logs or databases may be maintained for the pieceof equipment thereby allowing the remote system to monitor activitiesassociated with each piece of equipment.

Upon updating a user interface using real time acquisition ofinformation 504 and updating a display 505 within the control center,the method proceeds to step 506 where the method detects a process orequipment error. If no errors are detected, the method proceeds to step504 and repeats. If an error is detected, the method updates the remotemonitoring system and alerts users 507 within the control center of theupdated status.

For example, a visual indication on a user interface may be displayedand may include sending a page to one or more individuals alerting themof the altered status for the equipment or process. The method thenproceeds to step 508 where the method determines if resources should bereallocated. If a simulation is not run, a user may reallocate resources516 within the manufacturing facility. If a simulation of resourceallocation is selected, the method proceeds to step 509 whereinformation within selective areas of the manufacturing facility areacquired. For example, the method may determine availability ofresources within another portion of the factory by accessing a WIPprofile for each area within the factory. The simulator may then takethe current volume scheduled for the inoperable section of the factoryand schedule all or portions of the work load to one or more areaswithin the factory. For example, a particular area may have the capacityto output additional units prior to reaching full capacity. As such, thesimulator may determine the available capacity for one or more areaswithin the factory and simulate routing portions or all of the workloadto the available resources 510. The simulator may attempt severaliterations 511 until an optimized re-allocation of resources isdetermined and display the results 512 within a user interface of thecontrol center. Upon determining an optimized model, a user within thecontrol center may accept or decline the simulation 513 and the methodproceeds to step 514 where the method updates and deploys the determinedscenario.

For example, if piece of equipment within one of the build cells 207 aof FIG. 2 became inoperable and rendered build cell 207 a inoperable,the method may determine that a build cell within another portion ofbuild facility 207 may be able to handle the workload. As such, thecontrol center may re-route kits coming from one or more kittingfacilitates using transport 206 until the problem with build cell 207 ais resolved. In this manner, real-time access to resources within themanufacturing facility may be accessed via a remote monitoring systemand a simulation may determine allocating available resources within themanufacturing facility thereby allowing dynamic allocation of resourcesbased on a current WIP profiles associated with each area within themanufacturing facility.

Referring now to FIG. 6, a flow diagram of a method for pulling productthrough a manufacturing facility based on capacity availability of acarrier and WIP profiles of the manufacturing facility is shown. Themethod begins generally at step 600. At step 601, a control center maybe used to determine capacity and/or orders for a carrier 601 that maybe inbound or proximal to a manufacturing facility. For example, acarrier may include additional capacity to ship products to adestination. Upon determining a carrier, a percent completion for anorder for the carrier is determined 602 and resources for the orderincluding WIP profiles and order fulfillment of products are alsodetermined 603. The method then proceeds to step 604 where resources forthe shipment are allocated in order to fulfill a ship criteria and thecarrier is assigned to a dock door 605. The method then proceeds to step606 where completed products may be retrieved from an ASRS and joinedwith other products that may be pulled through the manufacturingfacility based on current levels of production within the manufacturingfacility. Each product may be merged with other products beingmanufactured and/or retrieved from other locations within the facilityand palletized if appropriate and routed to the assigned door for thecarrier 606. The method then proceeds to step 607 where one or moredatabase(s), logs, etc. may be updated to reflect the resources beingallocated to fill the order. The method then repeats at step 601.

Although the disclosed embodiments have been described in detail, itshould be understood that various changes, substitutions and alterationscan be made to the embodiments without departing from their spirit andscope.

What is claimed is:
 1. A manufacturing facility employing dynamicallocation of resources for assembling and shipping products comprising:a centralized information system that monitors respectivework-in-process (WIP) profiles for build, packaging, and shippingfacilities within the manufacturing facility; wherein the respective WIPprofiles for the build, packaging, and shipping facilities includeinformation obtained in substantially real-time by the centralizedinformation system; wherein the WIP profile for the build facilityidentifies product volume within the build facility; wherein the WIPprofile for the packaging facility identifies product volume within thepackaging facility; wherein the WIP profile for the shipping facilityidentifies product volume within the shipping facility; the centralizedinformation system operable to display information from the respectiveWIP profiles for the build, packaging, and shipping facilities in a userinterface in a control center for the manufacturing facility; thecentralized information system operable to receive user input specifyinga desired reallocation of resources within one or more of the buildfacility, the packaging facility, and the shipping facility; and thecentralized information system operable to respond to the user input byautomatically communicating with one or more of the build facility, thepackaging facility, and the shipping facility to implement the desiredreallocation of resources.
 2. The manufacturing facility of claim 1further comprising a process monitor operable to monitor a processactivity associated with two or more of the build facility, thepackaging facility, and the shipping facility.
 3. The manufacturingfacility of claim 2 wherein the process monitor determines processerrors for one or more of the build facility, the packaging facility,and the shipping facility.
 4. The manufacturing facility of claim 1further comprising the control center operable to pull productsassociated with an order from the manufacturing facility for tender to acarrier associated with the order, based on shipping criteria associatedwith the order and based on WIP profiles for two or more of the buildfacility, the packaging facility, and the shipping facility.
 5. Themanufacturing facility of claim 4 further comprising the control centeroperable to optimize the manufacture of products based on a deliverycapability of the carrier and a ship criteria of the order.
 6. Themanufacturing facility of claim 5 further comprising the control centeroperable to access an order request and allocate resources within themanufacturing facility to manufacture one or more systems based on theorder request.
 7. The manufacturing facility of claim 6 furthercomprising the control center operable to: determine carrieravailability and available carrier capacity; to reallocate manufacturingresources within the build facility to process an order that can beshipped with the available carrier capacity of the available carrier; todetermine availability of a loading dock door; and to allocate theloading dock door for the orders based on available resources within theshipping facility.
 8. The manufacturing facility of claim 1 furthercomprising an automated storage and retrieval system (ASRS) associatedwith the control center and operable to retrieve product for an orderbased on ship criteria for the order, and based on availability of acarrier.
 9. The facility of claim 1 further comprising the controlcenter operable to reallocate resources based on available capacity foran incoming carrier.
 10. A system for providing a control center for amanufacturing facility comprising: a plurality of information sourcesoperably associated with manufacturing products for a customer orderwithin the manufacturing facility; a work-in-process (WIP) profilemonitor that maintains WIP profiles for build, packaging, and shippingfacilities within the manufacturing facility, such that the WIP profilesinclude substantially real-time data that represents product volumewithin the build, packaging, and shipping facilities, respectively; auser interface within a control center operable to manage productionwithin the manufacturing facility, the user interface operable todisplay information from the WIP profiles for the build facility, thepackaging facility, and the shipping facility; the user interfaceoperable to receive user input that specifies a desired reallocation ofresources within one or more of the build facility, the packagingfacility; and the shipping facility; and a resource allocator operablycoupled to the control center, that automatically communicates with oneor more of the build facility, the packaging facility, and the shippingfacility to implement the desired reallocation of resources.
 11. Thesystem of claim 10 further comprising a dock and scheduling userinterface displayed within the control center, wherein the dock andscheduling user interface facilitates reallocation of resources for anorder based on a ship criteria for the order and carrier information forthe order.
 12. The system of claim 10 further comprising a WIP profilemonitor and resource allocation user interface displayed within thecontrol center.
 13. The system of claim 10 further comprising: a processerror and identification user interface displayed within the controlcenter; and an equipment error ID and recovery user interface displayedwithin the control center.
 14. The system of claim 10 further comprisingat least one database operable to provide real-time access toinformation associated with manufacturing a computer system.
 15. Thesystem of claim 10 wherein the system provides access to informationassociated one or more carriers, the information including capacity ofthe carrier.
 16. The system of claim 10 further comprising control logicoperable to allocate resources based on a ship criteria and carrierinformation associated with an order.
 17. The system of claim 16 furthercomprising control logic operable to: identify an unavailable resourcewithin the manufacturing facility; determining available capacity at asubstitute resource for the unavailable resource within themanufacturing facility; -and route products to the substitute resource.18. A method for controlling allocation of resources within a build toorder manufacturing facility comprising: monitoring a work-in-process(WIP) profile for a build facility within the manufacturing facility,wherein the WIP profile for the build facility includes substantiallyreal-time data that represents product volume within the build facility;monitoring a WIP profile for a packaging facility within themanufacturing facility, wherein the WIP profile for the packagingfacility includes substantially real-time data that represents productvolume within the packaging facility; monitoring a WIP profile for ashipping facility within the manufacturing facility, wherein the WIPprofile for the shipping facility includes substantially real-time datathat represents product volume within the shipping facility; displayinginformation from the WIP profiles for the build facility, the packagingfacility, and the shipping facility on a user interface of a controlcenter for the manufacturing facility; after displaying information fromthe WIP profiles for the build facility, the packaging facility, and theshipping facility in the control center, receiving user input thatspecifies a desired reallocation of resources within one or more of thebuild facility, the packaging facility, and the shipping facility; andin response to receiving the user input, automatically communicatingwith one or more of the build facility, the packaging facility, and theshipping facility to implement the desired reallocation of resources.19. The method of claim 18, wherein: the operation of displayinginformation from the WIP profiles comprises displaying information thatpertains to a bottleneck restricting completion and shipment of anorder; and the operation of automatically communicating with one or moreof the build facility, the packaging facility, and the shipping facilityto implement the desired reallocation of resources comprises dynamicallyallocating resources to relieve the bottleneck.
 20. The method of claim18 further comprising: determining available shipping capacity based onshipping and scheduling information for a carrier that serves themanufacturing facility; analyzing WIP profiles for an order associatedwith the carrier; determining a complete percentage of the order, basedon the WIP profiles; and dynamically assigning the carrier to a dockassociated with the manufacturing facility in response to determiningthe complete percentage of the order.
 21. The method of claim 20 furthercomprising: retrieving required product to fill the order from anautomated storage and retrieval system (ASRS); processing the productfor shipment; and transporting the product to the assigned dock fortender to the carrier.
 22. The method of claim 18 further comprising:detecting an error associated with a resource within the manufacturingfacility; updating the user interface to display the detected error; andre-allocating resources based on user input received after the detectederror has been displayed.
 23. The method of claim 22 wherein theoperation of detecting an error comprises detecting an equipment errorwithin the manufacturing facility.
 24. The method of claim 22 whereinthe detecting comprises detecting a process error.
 25. The method ofclaim 22 further comprising: deploying a simulator to evaluate are-allocation of resources; and re-allocating resources based onevaluation results from the simulator.
 26. The method of claim 22,further comprising: displaying graphical illustrations of pieces ofequipment within the manufacturing facility; and displaying operationalstatus information for the pieces of equipment.
 27. The method of claim22, further comprising: automatically updating the WIP profile for atleast one area in the manufacturing facility based on scans of eachproduct unit entering the area and each product unit leaving the area,such that the WIP profile is updated for individual product units asthose units progress through the manufacturing facility.
 28. The methodof claim 27, further comprising: determining total product volume withinat least one area in the manufacturing facility by aggregatinginformation on individual product units in the WIP profile for thatarea.
 29. The method of claim 19, further comprising: recognizing shipcriteria associated with the order; analyzing one or more WIP profilesassociated with the order; determining whether the ship criteriaassociated with the order have been satisfied, based on the analysis ofthe one or more WIP profiles; and in response to determining that a shipcriterion among the ship criteria has not been satisfied, displayinginformation that identifies the unsatisfied ship criterion.